Fox News: “Wind energy facilities have killed at least 67 golden and bald eagles in the last five years, but the figure could be much higher, according to a new scientific study by government biologists”

A federal law called the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act provides for the protection of the bald eagle and the golden eagle prohibiting the “taking” of eagles. The term “take” includes killing an eagle. See 16 U.S.C. 668c; 50 CFR 22.3. The civil penalties for violating the Act include a maximum fine of $5,000 or one year in prison. Second convictions have a penalty of a $10,000 fine or up to two years in prison. Killing an eagle can also be a felony with a fine up to $250,000 or two years in prison. Fine double if the killer is an organization.

Although killing eagles is a crime ignored by President Obama and Eric Holder you better not kill a duck without a permit or you may be prosecuted. Obama’s Department of Justice chartered a helicopter to fly over land in North Dakota looking for dead ducks. The federal duck police spotted two dead ducks in a pond on land owned by Oilman Bud Brigham, the head of Brigham Resources. The ducks had drowned in oil run off ponds. The feds charged Bud with crimes and prosecuted him. If convicted he could have been imprisoned for up to six months for each death.

The judge threw out the case as absurd. He said the federal duck police were trying to criminalize the following activities that result in dead ducks: driving, owning a building with windows. farming and owning a cat.

TechDirt: “Many sites that include user reviews work pretty hard to scrub the obviously fake ones, but it appears Yelp has taken that to a new level, deciding to sue a law firm for posting fake reviews. . . . Yelp is arguing that when McMillan employees created fake accounts in order to post bogus positive reviews for their own firm, they violated the terms of service of the site. . . . the lawsuit focuses on some specific charges including breach of contract, intentional interference with contractual relations, unfair competition and false advertising.”

Watts Up with That: “In 2007, the Global Warming Petition Project published a list of more than 31,000 scientists, including more than 9,000 PhDs, who stated, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.” . . . Climate Change Reconsidered II is a 1,200-page report that references more than one thousand peer-reviewed scientific papers, compiled by about 40 scientists from around the world. Among the key findings of CCR-II are: . . . .

The Telegraph: “Global warming? No, actually we’re cooling, claim scientists. A cold Arctic summer has led to a record increase in the ice cap, leading experts to predict a period of global cooling. There has been a 60 per cent increase in the amount of ocean covered with ice compared to this time last year, they equivalent of almost a million square miles. . . . A leaked report to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seen by the Mail on Sunday, has led some scientists to claim that the world is heading for a period of cooling that will not end until the middle of this century.”

Could somebody please tell the U.S. government and President Obama to read the IPPC report?

Wall St. Journal: “A federal judge in California ruled last week that clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. discriminated against a Muslim employee on religious grounds, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Monday. The lawsuit was filed by the EEOC in 2011 on behalf of Umme-Hani Khan, a Muslim who was fired in February 2010 because her head scarf didn’t conform to the company’s dress code called its ‘Look Policy’.”

Arizona Republic: “Stung by an adverse ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court, Mesa is drastically loosening its rules on tattoo parlors. . . . With legal help from the Goldwater Institute, the Colemans sued Mesa, charging that the city had quashed their First Amendment right to artistic expression. Last September, the Arizona Supreme Court sided with the Colemans, agreeing that their profession falls under First Amendment protection. It was the first such ruling by any state high court in the country.”

Alaska Dispatch: “When agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor and jackets emblazoned with POLICE in big, bold letters, local placer miners didn’t quite know what to think. Did it really take eight armed men and a squad-size display of paramilitary force to check for dirty water? . . . [The water police were there] to check for violations of section 404 of the Clean Water Act“